KOLKATA: The aggregate assets declared by four Trinamool Congress MPs who are re-contesting in the sixth phase of the Lok Sabha polls in West Bengal, have soared by over 103 per cent to about Rs 40.59 crore from their combined assets of Rs 19.91 crore shown last time, a report said on Friday.
Meanwhile, the Bishnupur constituency's outgoing MP and now the Bharatiya Janata Party's (BJP) nominee from the same seat, Saumitra Khan, who was expelled by the Trinamool for anti-party activities, has declared a whopping 623 per cent rise in assets during the last five years.
He declared assets worth over Rs 86.57 lakh in his affidavit, submitted as a part of his nomination papers, as against assets of Rs 11.97 lakh declared in 2014.
Among Trinamool MPs who are seeking re-election this time, the party's Ghatal candidate and Bengali film star Deepak Adhikari's assets have increased by over 108 per cent to Rs 31.73 crore from properties earlier worth Rs 15.24 crore. The ruling party's veteran leader and Kanthi MP Sisir Adhikari has shown assets worth Rs 3.39 crore, up by 74 per cent from Rs 1.95 crore assets declared in 2014.
Prepared by the West Bengal Election Watch, the report also said the Trinamool's Purulia MP Mriganko Mahato's assets have risen 91 per cent to Rs 1.7 crore in the last five years and Trinamool Tamluk MP Dibyendu Adhikari who had won a by-election in 2016, has declared assets of Rs 3.77 crore, up by 105 per cent from Rs 1.84 crore in the last three years.
The by-poll to the Tamluk Lok Sabha seat was necessitated after Trinamool MP Suvendu Adhikari, elder brother of Dibyendu, won the West Bengal Assembly election from Nandigram and became a state Minister.
The value of the properties of candidates, analysed in the report, include collective assets of the respective candidate, spouse and dependent. The other BJP candidate contesting from Bankura, Subhas Sarkar who had also re-contested from the seat in 2014, declared assets worth over Rs 1.98 crore, an increase of 40 per cent.
The Congress nominee from Purulia, Nepal Mahatao, who had contested from the same seat five years ago, has declared assets worth Rs 53.3 lakh, up by 107 per cent from Rs 25.68 lakh. The Communist Party of India's Tamluk candidate Sk. Ibrahim Ali's assets, however, declined by 61.55 per cent to Rs 4.12 lakh, as compared to Rs 10.73 lakh declared in 2014.